Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – No, the aftershocks of an e. coli outbreak which has unfortunately given both Canadians and export markets reason for concern about the safety of some of our major food sources aren’t about to end simply because the Cons are again pretending everything’s fine.
Continue readingTag: Thomas Walkom
Politics and its Discontents: Assumptions Can Be Dangerous
[Former Ontario Premier Mike] Harris assumed that small Ontario towns like Walkerton would have the good sense to keep their drinking water clean. [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper assumed that profit-making companies would make sure that their consumers received safe products. In both cases, they were wrong. This excerpt from Thomas
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Mitchell Anderson’s final report on Norway’s highly successful management of its oil resources puts Canada’s current philosophy to the test: Seen through this lens, how is Canada doing? Abysmally…: 1. Dependency. Even with our vast oil wealth, Canada currently relies on other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Thomas Walkom discusses how the McGuinty Libs are going beyond imposing immediate pay freezes on the public sector, and instead passing what’s better seen as the War on Workers Measures Act – giving Ontario’s government the power to dictate labour outcomes by decree
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Business Insider reports on a new study from the U.S.’ Congressional Research Service showing that in addition to exacerbating inequality, top-heavy tax cuts rank somewhere between useless and downright harmful when it comes to overall economic growth: According to a new study by
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sometimes It Is Hard Not To Feel Smug
Many years ago, the singer Mac Davis wrote and performed a satirical song entitled “It’s Hard To Be Humble,” about a man so impressed with himself that he has no insight whatsoever into what a buffoon he really is. I sometimes think of that song when I ponder the shenanigans
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Common Dreams discusses the prevalence of inherited wealth among the U.S.’ richest individuals (as pointed out by a report by United for a Fair Economy): Forbes claims that their list of the 400 richest people is ‘the definitive scorecard of wealth’ in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dr. Dawg tears into the National Post’s gratuitous union-bashing: (W)hen it comes to unions, a careless disregard for facts seems to affect journos like a disease. They fall back on their prejudices, cutting and pasting their ready-made anti-union copy in their sleep.… Unions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that to start your long weekend. – Antonia Zerbisias and Thomas Walkom both discuss the connection between organized labour and the very existence of a substantial middle class. And Janice Kennedy worries about the all-too-prevalent trend toward worker-bashing. – But Andrew Jackson nicely points out why attempts to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – While Thomas Walkom’s latest has faced some justified criticism from a couple of angles, this part at least looks to be right on the money: The assumption here was that if businesses were allowed to keep more of their profits they would
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kady points out that despite the Cons’ best efforts to stonewall, the Robocon investigation in Guelph looks to have locked in on the source of their fraudulent robocalls. And while it’s indeed somewhat concerning that Elections Canada hasn’t reached anywhere near the same
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Mitchell Anderson discusses the Ten Commandments that have ensured that Norway’s oil wealth is preserved for the benefit of citizens. But it’s particularly worth contrasting Norway’s philosophy surrounding non-renewable resources against the frenzy to extract everything today at any price (which of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Harper Government and The Eve of Environmental Destruction
Despite recent toned-down rhetoric, I suspect Harper and his minions are fooling very few people. Take, for example, the recent words of our Anti-Environment Minister, the integrity-challenged Peter Kent: Confronted by a looming 2020 deadline for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the Harper government will ramp up its efforts to reduce
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Conway discusses the Cons’ project of destroying Canada’s social safety net. – But the good news is that Stephen Harper is running into a few roadblocks along the way. For example, the rule of law – as a Federal Court judge has
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thomas Walkom – Harper and Oil
In this time of unprecedented climate change, I think most people realize that Stephen Harper has an unhealthy addiction to oil, one that marks him as truly retrogressive as he seeks to return Canada to its traditional role as primarily an exporter of resources, all the while couching that backward
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Upper Class Twit of the Year?
I have long given up trying to fathom the ‘mind’ of America. The behaviour of its political leaders, both Democratic and Republican, and the following such behaviour inspires, leaves me particularly perplexed. However, Mitt Romney’s recent foray abroad to display his foreign policy bona fides has at least provided me
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jeffrey Simpson criticizes the Cons for killing off the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy as punishment for telling the truth about climate change at its own request: In a letter to the National Round Table on the Environment and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Thomas Walkom highlights why we should be nothing but dubious about the austerians’ call to slash public supports: The Harper Conservatives are scaling back spending on national parks to save about $20 million. But at the same time they are planning to spend
Continue readingAlberta Diary: It’s not necessarily the European economy running out of runway, it’s neo-Cons like Stephen Harper
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warns his countrymen about the fate awaiting Europe if it doesn’t crush unions and eliminate defined-benefit pension plans. Canadian Conservatives may not appear exactly as illustrated, but pretty close. Below: Francoise Hollande, John Maynard Keynes and Thomas Mulcair. With the anticipated triumph of France’s Socialists
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: It’s not necessarily the European economy running out of runway, it’s neo-Cons like Stephen Harper
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warns his countrymen about the fate awaiting Europe if it doesn’t crush unions and eliminate defined-benefit pension plans. Canadian Conservatives may not appear exactly as illustrated, but pretty close. Below: Francoise Hollande, John Maynard Keynes and Thomas Mulcair. With the anticipated triumph of France’s Socialists
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